Write Programs for People First, Computers Second

your program n. A maze of non sequiturs littered with clever-clever tricks and irrelevant comments. Compare MY PROGRAM.

my program n. A gem of algoristic precision, offering the most sublime balance between compact, efficient coding on the one hand and fully commented legibility for posterity on the other. Compare YOUR PROGRAM.

—Stan Kelly-Bootle

Another theme that runs throughout this book is an emphasis on code readability. Communication with other people is the motivation behind the quest for the Holy Grail of self-documenting code.

The computer doesn't care whether your code is readable. It's better at reading binary machine instructions than it is at reading high-level-language statements. You ...

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